Co-host or Guest on Dave and Mahoney Show (2:18)
We give you forward progress here on 312 Sports whether you want it or not. We award you forward progress and we know you want it. And it's just you and me today. Matt Abaticola is on vacation. Cody Delmendo is producing. And do you remember when was I? Geez, a couple months ago when Ben Johnson took his shirt off and the locker room, how awesome it was. And we're like, well, he went and did it. He finally went and did it. And Ari Levy at Wiener Circle gave everybody free hot dogs. And he rose to the challenge, took everybody up on it, and had the time of his life after the big win, going crazy with his shirtless good, better, best. Now, what I said at the time and you, you may not have liked this, but my, I think my question was a real one, and it still stands to make the decision to do that. Was there anything in his head at the time where Ben Johnson. Oh, fine. I, I, this is against my better judgment. This will probably haunt me somehow years later, but screw it. Yolo, here we go. And he did it, and it was great. Well, I remember thinking that that's usually a spouse's job when you come home to say the best thing a spouse can do is often say, what are you wearing? What is that on your face? Your pants are dirty, Your hair is sticking up? Or, what the hell is wrong with you? That's really why you make the commitment that you do. And shout out to Beth Bernstein. We did celebrate our 27th anniversary on Friday night with a spectacular dinner. This is apropos of nothing and not an endorsement, but if you get the chance to go to Gavroche on Wells, it's like, right across from Zany's and, oh, my God, is it good? So we knew it was good, and it got really well, but blown away, absolutely blown away by the, the service, the quality of the food, the price points. It is. And as I said to the owner when I walked out, and it's an open kitchen, there's like 24 seats. I said, that little kitchen punches way above its weight. And it is, it's awesome. So believe me, I know where I come from when it comes to knowing the value of what a spouse can do is usually when I get home, it's almost always, what the hell is wrong with you? Or you forgot this, or before I leave, I have somebody just gimme a once over to say, all right, you're fine. You're allowed to go out in polite company now because you've gotten the approval of a sane person. So now go out and face the world with, with confidence and keep the lights on and pay the mortgage and send the kids to college and all that. But I was wondering if Ben Johnson's wife, when he got home that day, was like, really? You really took your shirt off and started screaming like that? And like, yeah, he did because it's awesome and it was in the moment and. And I'm Mr. Enjoy It Guy, so I can't be both things. I loved it and I still love it. So I was wondering what was running through his mind at the Blackhawks game where they show it and it goes right up there on the video board and the. And there he is. And crowds going crazy. It's a great thing about doing anything. Bears. You don't risk the Cubs sock stuff of having a certain percentage of the audience not engaging with it. Everybody loves the Bears. Every Blackhawks fan loves the Bears. And they show him. And then the camera, of course, they smash cut to him. There he is, he's at the game, right? And I just wonder if any part of him, of course, is thinking, they got to show with the shirt off thing. Okay, they can't just, you know, show me with the headset on, whatever, looking all serious, calling a play. They can't show me on the field. Like, if he's probably like, why don't they show me blowing off Matt LaFleur in the post game handshake? Like, I, if. If they asked him, I wonder or his people or whoever it is and said, hey, you know, can you. It's up to you which video we use. I know he doesn't have that kind of poll that the. Maybe he does. I don't know. But the Blackhawks can probably choose what they want to use. I just wonder if that would be his first choice at this point. And go, I'm going to get killed for saying this, but please don't take this the wrong way. And every time I say that, you do anyway. But I'm always cognizant of the day, that incredible day at Wrigley Field when a triumphant Matt Negy, like the conquering hero Matt Negy, first of all, throughout the first pitch and threw a high strike at 70 some miles an hour and just looked the part and didn't do some little goofy flip and stood there on the right. I believe he was right on the rubber and threw a real pitch and people were going crazy. That was the same day that was when he sang the stretch and said penis instead of peanuts. Quick story on that, by the way. So Negi does that. I don't know if I ever told this really in full. So Negi. And he clearly said it was peanuts, but it sounded like, buy me some penis. And like, oh, he did it. He said it. I remember Parkins looking at me like, he just said penis, didn't he? Like, yeah, yeah, he did. I think he did. So we had some fun with that. And that caused all sorts of consternation in the old hallways. Did I ever tell this story? I think I did where it was fun. It was right on brand for everything we were doing. Just making fun of him. It's like. Well, I think he said it. Here he is, this Bears coach and everybody loves it, and the young guy and the new energy and club dub and boom, and all that stuff, and he sang it. And all of the suits at the time were so nervous about it. I don't know what was going on at, like, corporate, but they said we were in negotiations for how many times we could play the audio, like, internally. And like, well, you can't play it too many times. Like, come on. You don't. You can't tell us to start a show. And we have the. The head coach of the Bears saying penis. And we. You're telling us we can't play it? Well, you know, the fcc and if you can' be seen as. What was the word they used? Oh, I forgot exactly what the word. Reckless. Not reckless, but shoot. I'm trying to remember exactly what it was about. It can't be seen as being over the top or just for the sake of using it. And there was. I'll try to remember exactly the word that they used to describe an understanding of overuse. And if you're going to play it, you don't say it. You shouldn't say it. I'm like, it's a part of the body. So of course I'm there in the meeting doing what I do, going, what do you mean? Penis. Penis. Penis, penis, penis. And like, the more you say it, I'm just going to walk out and turn the light on and just say this stuff like, don't do that. And everyone is so terrified. So I think we had to agree, like, can we play it three times? Yeah, but not immediately in succession. You have to space it out. And no one exactly knew what the rules were. They just knew they were scared. Which was a pretty good encapsulation of a lot of the Zeitgeist at whatever time that was was. We trust you not to do too much of it, but don't do too much. Don't have too much fun with it. Have fun with it, of course, but don't have too much fun. Like, really, what are we doing here? So that was. My memories of that are more about internally, of all this corporate fear and terror over saying the word of a part of the body. It's like, what if I said elbow, elbow, elbow? No, no, you can't do that. You can't say. So we got through it. But I just remember it being really fun. And then Matt Nagy was bad at football coaching and they had bad players and the Bears were bad, and it sucked. And now that doesn't seem as much fun as it was. So it is my. My hope against hope that the Ben Johnson shirtless viral moment survives as a good thing that augured well for the Bears, that it ushered in a time of joy, a time of where the Bears were in a position to. To. To stunt on their opponents however they wanted before the fact or after the fact and after beating Green Bay and declaring their hatred for Green Bay, that they were able to follow through. Because I. I don't know. I'd say there's what, an 80% chance of that being true Right now, anything can. You know, a couple of injuries and the whole thing gets derailed and everybody's miserable. I don't want that to happen. I want everything to be good and fun and nice, and I don't want him to necessarily regret doing that or to have that follow him. And the Bears fire him after three years, and then at the next job, the team is like, oh, so about that taking your shir. We won't. We can expect that you won't do that as the head coach of the Houston Texans, or whatever it may be. It was great, and I hope it stays that way. And I hope that actual outcomes on the football field and the Chicago Bears going on to win a Super bowl are the reasons we can look back at shirtless Ben Johnson as a good thing. That was done out of confidence in what was to come. I think that's sort of how new Bears safety Kobe Bryant is operating here. Do you see? He is talking about negotiations. Things are at a high level right now as the Bears new safety and their biggest acquisition of the off season is angling to get number eight. That man wants his number. So there has to be a transaction now with Cairo Santos, who. And, you know, I don't really know numbers all that well, so I had to open up a depth chart and a numerical roster to see that, yes, Kyro Santos is number eight. And I don't know if there is an unwritten NFL rule that says a kicker automatically has to give up his number if asked, or does a certain status in the league allow a kicker to be able to at least command some consideration? Does he have to? What's the ultimate example of this like, did I think it was you Darvish bought a Porsche, Is that right? Yeah. I don't know if there's any memory of that. I know there have been watches or big checks cut to get that number. There's. There would be something very, very footbally about the price being lower to rip the number off the back of a kicker. And I guess this is important to him because he told up and Adams that he said he reached out to him Santos and he said, I asked him about the number eight. He said he was very cool about it. We're trying to come to an agreement pretty soon. He said, I don't have a set number yet. I don't want to speak too soon, but I have two options because apparently the Bears Kobe Bryant is also considering number 24, which is the second number that Kobe wore. And Nick McLeod was 24 and is currently a free agent. I don't think there's anything that he would necessarily have to do if not resign. So my guess is that is his. And I didn't know that Santos wore number two during his first GO round in Chicago. And now number two is open because DJ Moore is gone. And maybe the argument for Santos is you could go back to your original preferred number and then, I don't know. It's. It's important to him. And Kobe Bryant himself said, when I first came in at 8, it was a plant your flag sort of thing. 24 is a growth from that. All right. However, the Bears Kobe Bryant wants to define that. I just one thing I've learned over the with Bam out of bio and everything else is Kobe Bryant's name and legacy is apparently a lot more sacrosanct around the world than I had and I thought it was. I didn't know that we had to tread so lightly around Kobe Bryant. I just thought he was a really good basketball player who is up there on some a lot of in a lot of scoring records and won some titles. But retroactively, it seems like there's a whole generation of people to whom he means a whole lot more than I thought. So my advice then to the Bears Kobe Bryant is tread lightly, be careful. It's just a very easy place to make people very, very angry if you don't pay proper homage or fealty or respect to his memory. I guess I think BAM ought to buy maybe learned that the hard way as well. There is some NFL news that, while not bearing directly on the Bears, is certainly worth noting, and that is that Jackson, Smith and Jigba agreed to a four year extension through 2031 with the Seahawks 168.63 million. He is now the highest paid receiver in the NFL. His AAV 42.15 million. Now Seattle didn't necessarily have to do this when they did it. I mean obviously there are some before the they have their own cap issues that are going to make this all matter in ways we probably don't even know. But this is the number 20 pick of the 2023 draft after his fifth year option was exercised last year. AP Offensive Player of the Year 119 catches, 1793 yards, 10 touchdowns First Team All Pro Second time Pro bowl in the postseason 17 catches, 199 yards, 2 touchdowns For a Super bowl champion. Roma Dunze was in the next class. Roma Dunes a was drafted 11 spots higher. This would be the year if we are looking at a similar clock for the Bears highest drafted wide out in a long time to put up the kind of numbers that would command a contract that even sniffs this and I haven't seen Roma Dunes dad's social media feeds whether or not Mr. Dunes A has has thoughts because we know he has in the past when it's come to distributions within the passing offense of who's getting what and when and that's why it's going to be interesting because this is an egalitarian offense that Ben Johnson runs and I am convinced that despite having a relationship with his draft classmate Caleb Williams and despite being friendly with him that the last thing Ben Johnson wants is any sort of indication or bias or for better word, tendency from his offense. He doesn't want anything out there that says this guy's being looked for or more than anyone else who would otherwise be open that Roma dun will get the ball when they when he is open. He might not be the first option every time, but if everybody runs their route as hard as they can, the ball will find the guy who can make the explosive play from what is designed, what the defense runs and what Caleb Williams is able to read. So there will be inherent conflict. DJ Moore isn't going to be out there to make that matter anymore. The distribution will change. But now Colston Loveland, Luther Burden, Cole Comet and one more I'm not going to say Khalif Raymond quite yet, but I think there's going to be another wide receiver. And let me just say by the way that people I've seen the name DeAndre Hopkins out there because the Vikings were sniffing around. No, no no. Stop doing that. Stop bringing in these 33 year old former stars and don't give me any of the garbage about like with Kenan Allen and just, you know, having him setting an example. Like, no, you got a coach there who does all that. It's the coach's job to get these guys where they're supposed to be and when they're supposed to be there in the play or outside of the play. I don't think watching an old guy running around who has some sort of sense of what, of I don't want to say entitlement, but some expectations for usage, that's just going to mess things up. Right now I want everybody buying in to the nature of this being wealth that is spread to who's open, not to whose turn it is. And I think about that with my basketball teams and when I watch good basketball teams, unselfish sharing the ball, you can and have that borne out not in words but in actions. So no on another guy in his last legs because you need some sort of veteran presence in the room. Disagree. I trust Antoine Randall, I trust Ben Johnson to handle all of that. But I do think there's going to be another person in there. I do think whoever replaces Olamide Zacchaeus more completely than Khalif Raymond does because he's more the duvernay replacement. But somebody's going to be in there who is going to take up a chunk of those as well. But as I looked at the numbers that if I'm, if I'm Roma Dunes A and I'm trying to get paid, there's some gaudy numbers in here and forget the Money. For instance, 119 catches, nearly 1800 yards, 10 touchdowns. That's great. But at the bottom of the PFT story here, there's one sentence that I think sums it up for me. Jackson, Smith and Jigba has appeared in all 51 regular season games for which he's been eligible, catching 282 passes for 3,551 yards with 20 touchdowns. But it is the clause before the comma that is the real key here. The whiteout, Jackson, Smith and Jigba has been eligible to appear in 51 regular season games and has been eligible and is played in all of them that will get you paid. Availability, reliability, answering the bell, being there, understanding the difference between hurt and injured as your career goes on. And I have no reason to doubt that that is what Roma Dunze wants, that that is what he goes into every season attempting to do. But that is my desire that when you say how are you going to prove yourself and prove that you're deserving of. I don't know if he's going to get $41 million a year, especially with the fact that he's in the same draft class as that quarterback. And that's a blessing and a curse because I. Until the NFL figures out some way to carve up the money to account for massive quarterback contracts in a way that doesn't hamstring the rest of the team. There is. That is a. That's a finite amount of money and obviously the Bears want to have that problem. That would be a fantastic problem. How do we pay. We just won the Super Bowl. How do we pay our quarterback and our blossoming star wide out? And where does the money come from? How do we do it? What compromises are we making? What are the equal and opposite reactions of the economic physics of what we do? Let's have that problem because you got two top 10 picks, one of whom's a quarterback, and you're already up against the cap now and beginning. Beginning to envision what it's going to look like in the future. There will that and that time is going to be on us in a hurry. All the more reason, you know, the other lesson being enjoy this now we've got three, you know, for the fifth year option. But even by then, you know, do you want Caleb Williams going into the final year without. Probably not. You're probably going to tear that up. It's probably going to get on you faster than you think. So you're. You, you've got free flexibility right now because you haven't paid the quarterback yet. And all good problems to have problems that are solvable that you can. You can figure it out. I think that we're still looking at what the Broncos are doing with the horrible Russell Wilson money. Obviously the example that is set in Cleveland with the Deshaun Watson and however they're going to going to work their way out of that. But there's going to be a time where you got to make that commitment. And it does appear that the Bears are going to make that commitment. So go ahead Rome, make it work. And it may just be that it happens in both directions and this is me being overly romantic maybe about it that how would a team be fair? This is more the philosophical question. Let's say A Dunes A tells the Bears I may get 70 catches instead of 119. I may get 1100 yards instead of 1700. But the blocking, the buy in the route running even when not getting the ball has to be rewarded, that you can make a case. And this is like, I'm thinking about this. If I represented Roma Dunes and I was sitting across from Ryan Poles, that'll be my pitch when the time comes. If, in fact, everything we're asking of him is true. Everything we're asking him is, look, I'm. I don't care how many I catch. How am I helping you win? What can I do today to come in and help the Bears win this game? What do you need from me? And if you need me to block like Dennis McKinnon and catch the ball when I'm open, if you need me to, just keep running this route because Luther Burden's running free or Colston Loveland's running free. But I'm doing my job, pulling that safety over as much as possible. Reward me for doing the best I can do, because you don't want to incentivize selfishness. And if people are listening to the coach and people believe what the coach is saying, it's going to take big victories. It's going to take that kind of real selflessness. And yet it's the individual numbers that are going to garner the money. How would I as an agent and how would I as Roma Dunze if I'm making my case alone? And I don't mean to infantilize him by saying it's just the agent's job because these poor players have no idea what they're doing? I obviously presume the agent is working closely with and for the player and representing the interests of the player. But knowing it's usually the agent in the room making the case is, how do you do that? How do you say, this guy's done everything asked of him, everything asked of him, and he could have demanded a trade and gone somewhere else and tried to puff up his individual stats. And the problem is that Dunes's dad has publicly put out some fairly selfish things, it seemed, and I think it's reasonable to say that. And I also think that Rome himself has done a nice job of. Of. Of quieting some of that stuff, laughing at it, making it seem like no big deal. I don't think he's pushed back too hard to make it look like he's protesting too much. I think he's handled it just fine. And if that continues to a point where he's able to say, take care of me, I've been. I've done everything asked of me. No, I'm not putting up these giant, gaudy numbers, but that just means our offense is working. And if he can say, I've got ownership in one of the best offenses in the NFL that's gone to a Super bowl, won a Super bowl, gone to the conference championship, whatever you might say, whatever that pitch is, when the time comes, you like to see a team hold true to rewarding a player, not just putting up objective numbers or feeling like he has to go somewhere else to do that, to make that money, but in a fair way. Saying, you have, you have been a critical cog in what we've done and this is what we've asked of you and this is what we expect you to do going forward because you've done it in the past and you want your team to be fair about that. So I think that'd be pretty cool. Just a note, for most of this week, we've got guests lined up throughout the week here on Forward Progress that we are going to do some we're talking with Kalyn Kaler later on this week. We are going to talk with Dan Durkin on Friday. We got other things that are in the hopper that might come through with Mattabaticola on vacation and it's with anything that happens in the world of the Bears, we finally have a little bit of breather with other things going on. We are going to deal with the draftees that are coming through for, for their top 30 visits and see if any one of these safeties is indeed the choice at 25. You know where I stand on that. But that is for me too high to draft a safety unless there is a high certainty that that is an absolute franchise trajectory changer. And it's just very hard to do with that position. So I'm all for edge or elsewhere with that first pick, but there's Dylan Tinaman coming through and he's that people are loving the guy. So at the moment I'm, I'm a no on that in the first round. But I'm willing to change my mind because I'm not necessarily going to dig in if smarter people than I can convince me otherwise. But we're gonna be with you all week doing everything Bears here on Forward Progress. Thank you for being part of it. Thanks to Cody Delmendo for producing. I'm Dan Bernstein and this is Forward Progress, a Chicago Bears podcast on 312 Sports for Progress is Stopped.
